Jeremiah 52
1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign. He reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3For through the LORD’s anger this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about. 5So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
6In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. 7Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden. Now the Chaldeans were against the city all around. The men of war went toward the Arabah, 8but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. 9Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he pronounced judgment on him. 10The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He also killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 11He put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death.
12Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem. 13He burned the LORD’s house, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire. 14All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. 15Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the poorest of the people, and the rest of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. 16But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vineyard keepers and farmers.
17The Chaldeans broke the pillars of bronze that were in the LORD’s house and the bases and the bronze sea that were in the LORD’s house in pieces, and carried all of their bronze to Babylon. 18They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered. 19The captain of the guard took away the cups, the fire pans, the basins, the pots, the lamp stands, the spoons, and the bowls; that which was of gold, as gold, and that which was of silver, as silver.
20They took the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the bases, which King Solomon had made for the LORD’s house. The bronze of all these vessels was without weight. 21As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits encircled it; and its thickness was four fingers. It was hollow. 22A capital of bronze was on it; and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of bronze. The second pillar also had the same, with pomegranates. 23There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates were one hundred on the network all around.
24The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold, 25and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war; and seven men of those who saw the king’s face, who were found in the city; and the scribe of the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the middle of the city. 26Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah. 27The king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land. 28This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand twenty-three Jews;
29in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty-two persons;
30in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty-five people. All the people numbered four thousand six hundred.
31In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and released him from prison. 32He spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon, 33and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life. 34For his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.
Lamentations 1
1How the city sits solitary,
that was full of people!
She has become as a widow,
who was great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the provinces
has become a slave!
She weeps bitterly in the night.
Her tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
she has no one to comfort her.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.
They have become her enemies.
Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction
and because of great servitude.
She dwells among the nations.
She finds no rest.
All her persecutors overtook her in her distress.
The roads to Zion mourn,
because no one comes to the solemn assembly.
All her gates are desolate.
Her priests sigh.
Her virgins are afflicted,
and she herself is in bitterness.
Her adversaries have become the head.
Her enemies prosper;
for the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.
Her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary.
All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion.
Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture.
They have gone without strength before the pursuer.
Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries
all her pleasant things that were from the days of old;
when her people fell into the hand of the adversary,
and no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her.
They mocked at her desolations.
Jerusalem has grievously sinned.
Therefore she has become unclean.
All who honored her despise her,
because they have seen her nakedness.
Yes, she sighs and turns backward.
Her filthiness was in her skirts.
She didn’t remember her latter end.
Therefore she has come down astoundingly.
She has no comforter.
“See, LORD, my affliction;
for the enemy has magnified himself.”
The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things;
for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary,
concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.
All her people sigh.
They seek bread.
They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their soul.
“Look, LORD, and see,
for I have become despised.”
“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
which is brought on me,
with which the LORD has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
“From on high has he sent fire into my bones,
and it prevails against them.
He has spread a net for my feet.
He has turned me back.
He has made me desolate and I faint all day long.
“The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand.
They are knit together.
They have come up on my neck.
He made my strength fail.
The Lord has delivered me into their hands,
against whom I am not able to stand.
“The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men within me.
He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men.
The Lord has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a wine press.
“For these things I weep.
My eye, my eye runs down with water,
because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me.
My children are desolate,
because the enemy has prevailed.”
Zion spreads out her hands.
There is no one to comfort her.
The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob,
that those who are around him should be his adversaries.
Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.
“The LORD is righteous,
for I have rebelled against his commandment.
Please hear all you peoples,
and see my sorrow.
My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.
“I called for my lovers,
but they deceived me.
My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city,
while they sought food for themselves to refresh their souls.
“Look, LORD; for I am in distress.
My heart is troubled.
My heart turns over within me,
for I have grievously rebelled.
Abroad, the sword bereaves.
At home, it is like death.
“They have heard that I sigh.
There is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble.
They are glad that you have done it.
You will bring the day that you have proclaimed,
and they will be like me.
“Let all their wickedness come before you.
Do to them as you have done to me for all my transgressions.
For my sighs are many,
and my heart is faint.
Lamentations 2
1How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger!
He has cast the beauty of Israel down from heaven to the earth,
and hasn’t remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
The Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob
without pity.
He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah.
He has brought them down to the ground.
He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
He has cut off all the horn of Israel in fierce anger.
He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy.
He has burned up Jacob like a flaming fire,
which devours all around.
He has bent his bow like an enemy.
He has stood with his right hand as an adversary.
He has killed all that were pleasant to the eye.
In the tent of the daughter of Zion, he has poured out his wrath like fire.
The Lord has become as an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces.
He has destroyed his strongholds.
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah.
He has violently taken away his tabernacle,
as if it were a garden.
He has destroyed his place of assembly.
The LORD has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion.
In the indignation of his anger, he has despised the king and the priest.
The Lord has cast off his altar.
He has abhorred his sanctuary.
He has given the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy.
They have made a noise in the LORD’s house,
as in the day of a solemn assembly.
The LORD has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has stretched out the line.
He has not withdrawn his hand from destroying;
He has made the rampart and wall lament.
They languish together.
Her gates have sunk into the ground.
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not.
Yes, her prophets find no vision from the LORD.
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground.
They keep silence.
They have cast up dust on their heads.
They have clothed themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
My eyes fail with tears.
My heart is troubled.
My bile is poured on the earth,
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.
They ask their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”
when they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city,
when their soul is poured out into their mothers’ bosom.
What shall I testify to you?
What shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I compare to you,
that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion?
For your breach is as big as the sea.
Who can heal you?
Your prophets have seen false and foolish visions for you.
They have not uncovered your iniquity,
to reverse your captivity,
but have seen for you false revelations and causes of banishment.
All that pass by clap their hands at you.
They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,
“Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty,
the joy of the whole earth’?”
All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you.
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have swallowed her up.
Certainly this is the day that we looked for.
We have found it.
We have seen it.”
The LORD has done that which he planned.
He has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old.
He has thrown down,
and has not pitied.
He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you.
He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.
Their heart cried to the Lord.
O wall of the daughter of Zion,
let tears run down like a river day and night.
Give yourself no relief.
Don’t let your eyes rest.
Arise, cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the watches!
Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children,
who faint for hunger at the head of every street.
“Look, LORD, and see to whom you have done thus!
Should the women eat their offspring,
the children that they held and bounced on their knees?
Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
“The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets.
My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword.
You have killed them in the day of your anger.
You have slaughtered, and not pitied.
“You have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side.
There was no one that escaped or remained in the day of the LORD’s anger.
My enemy has consumed those whom I have cared for and brought up.
Lamentations 3
1I am the man who has seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath.
2He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness,
and not in light.
3Surely he turns his hand against me
again and again all day long.
He has made my flesh and my skin old.
He has broken my bones.
5He has built against me,
and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6He has made me dwell in dark places,
as those who have been long dead.
He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out.
He has made my chain heavy.
8Yes, when I cry, and call for help,
he shuts out my prayer.
9He has walled up my ways with cut stone.
He has made my paths crooked.
He is to me as a bear lying in wait,
as a lion in hiding.
11He has turned away my path,
and pulled me in pieces.
He has made me desolate.
12He has bent his bow,
and set me as a mark for the arrow.
He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
14I have become a derision to all my people,
and their song all day long.
15He has filled me with bitterness.
He has stuffed me with wormwood.
He has also broken my teeth with gravel.
He has covered me with ashes.
17You have removed my soul far away from peace.
I forgot prosperity.
18I said, “My strength has perished,
along with my expectation from the LORD.”
Remember my affliction and my misery,
the wormwood and the bitterness.
20My soul still remembers them,
and is bowed down within me.
21This I recall to my mind;
therefore I have hope.
It is because of the LORD’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed,
because his mercies don’t fail.
23They are new every morning.
Great is your faithfulness.
24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul.
“Therefore I will hope in him.”
The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
26It is good that a man should hope
and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
Let him sit alone and keep silence,
because he has laid it on him.
29Let him put his mouth in the dust,
if it is so that there may be hope.
30Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him.
Let him be filled full of reproach.
For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32For though he causes grief,
yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
33For he does not afflict willingly,
nor grieve the children of men.
To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
35to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
36to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
Who is he who says, and it comes to pass,
when the Lord doesn’t command it?
38Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39Why should a living man complain,
a man for the punishment of his sins?
Let us search and try our ways,
and turn again to the LORD.
41Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42“We have transgressed and have rebelled.
You have not pardoned.
“You have covered us with anger and pursued us.
You have killed.
You have not pitied.
44You have covered yourself with a cloud,
so that no prayer can pass through.
45You have made us an off-scouring and refuse
in the middle of the peoples.
“All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
47Terror and the pit have come on us,
devastation and destruction.”
My eye runs down with streams of water,
for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49My eye pours down
and doesn’t cease,
without any intermission,
50until the LORD looks down,
and sees from heaven.
51My eye affects my soul,
because of all the daughters of my city.
They have chased me relentlessly like a bird,
those who are my enemies without cause.
53They have cut off my life in the dungeon,
and have cast a stone on me.
54Waters flowed over my head.
I said, “I am cut off.”
I called on your name, LORD,
out of the lowest dungeon.
56You heard my voice:
“Don’t hide your ear from my sighing,
and my cry.”
You came near in the day that I called on you.
You said, “Don’t be afraid.”
Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul.
You have redeemed my life.
59LORD, you have seen my wrong.
Judge my cause.
60You have seen all their vengeance
and all their plans against me.
You have heard their reproach, LORD,
and all their plans against me,
62the lips of those that rose up against me,
and their plots against me all day long.
63You see their sitting down and their rising up.
I am their song.
You will pay them back, LORD,
according to the work of their hands.
65You will give them hardness of heart,
your curse to them.
66You will pursue them in anger,
and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.
Lamentations 4
1How the gold has become dim!
The most pure gold has changed!
The stones of the sanctuary are poured out
at the head of every street.
The precious sons of Zion,
comparable to fine gold,
how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers,
the work of the hands of the potter!
Even the jackals offer their breast.
They nurse their young ones.
But the daughter of my people has become cruel,
like the ostriches in the wilderness.
The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst.
The young children ask for bread,
and no one breaks it for them.
Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets.
Those who were brought up in purple embrace dunghills.
For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom,
which was overthrown as in a moment.
No hands were laid on her.
Her nobles were purer than snow.
They were whiter than milk.
They were more ruddy in body than rubies.
Their polishing was like sapphire.
Their appearance is blacker than a coal.
They are not known in the streets.
Their skin clings to their bones.
It is withered.
It has become like wood.
Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger;
for these pine away, stricken through,
for lack of the fruits of the field.
The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children.
They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
The LORD has accomplished his wrath.
He has poured out his fierce anger.
He has kindled a fire in Zion,
which has devoured its foundations.
The kings of the earth didn’t believe,
neither did all the inhabitants of the world,
that the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.
It is because of the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,
that have shed the blood of the just in the middle of her.
They wander as blind men in the streets.
They are polluted with blood,
So that men can’t touch their garments.
“Go away!” they cried to them.
“Unclean! Go away! Go away! Don’t touch!
When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations,
“They can’t live here any more.”
The LORD’s anger has scattered them.
He will not pay attention to them any more.
They didn’t respect the persons of the priests.
They didn’t favor the elders.
Our eyes still fail,
looking in vain for our help.
In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
They hunt our steps,
so that we can’t go in our streets.
Our end is near.
Our days are fulfilled,
for our end has come.
Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky.
They chased us on the mountains.
They set an ambush for us in the wilderness.
The breath of our nostrils,
the anointed of the LORD,
was taken in their pits;
of whom we said,
under his shadow we will live among the nations.
Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom,
who dwells in the land of Uz.
The cup will pass through to you also.
You will be drunken,
and will make yourself naked.
The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion.
He will no more carry you away into captivity.
He will visit your iniquity, daughter of Edom.
He will uncover your sins.
Lamentations 5
1Remember, LORD, what has come on us.
Look, and see our reproach.
2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our houses to aliens.
3We are orphans and fatherless.
Our mothers are as widows.
4We must pay for water to drink.
Our wood is sold to us.
5Our pursuers are on our necks.
We are weary, and have no rest.
6We have given our hands to the Egyptians,
and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7Our fathers sinned, and are no more.
We have borne their iniquities.
8Servants rule over us.
There is no one to deliver us out of their hand.
9We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
because of the sword in the wilderness.
10Our skin is black like an oven,
because of the burning heat of famine.
11They ravished the women in Zion,
the virgins in the cities of Judah.
12Princes were hanged up by their hands.
The faces of elders were not honored.
13The young men carry millstones.
The children stumbled under loads of wood.
14The elders have ceased from the gate,
and the young men from their music.
15The joy of our heart has ceased.
Our dance is turned into mourning.
16The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17For this our heart is faint.
For these things our eyes are dim:
18for the mountain of Zion, which is desolate.
The foxes walk on it.
You, LORD, remain forever.
Your throne is from generation to generation.
20Why do you forget us forever,
and forsake us for so long a time?
21Turn us to yourself, LORD, and we will be turned.
Renew our days as of old.
22But you have utterly rejected us.
You are very angry against us.
Ezekiel 1
1Now in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
2In the fifth of the month, which was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, 3the LORD’s word came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the LORD’s hand was there on him.
4I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north: a great cloud, with flashing lightning, and a brightness around it, and out of the middle of it as it were glowing metal, out of the middle of the fire. 5Out of its center came the likeness of four living creatures. This was their appearance: They had the likeness of a man. 6Everyone had four faces, and each one of them had four wings. 7Their feet were straight feet. The sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like burnished bronze. 8They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides. The four of them had their faces and their wings like this: 9Their wings were joined to one another. They didn’t turn when they went. Each one went straight forward.
10As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man. The four of them had the face of a lion on the right side. The four of them had the face of an ox on the left side. The four of them also had the face of an eagle. 11Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above. Two wings of each one touched another, and two covered their bodies. 12Each one went straight forward. Where the spirit was to go, they went. They didn’t turn when they went. 13As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches. The fire went up and down among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and lightning went out of the fire. 14The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
15Now as I saw the living creatures, behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of the four faces of it. 16The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl. The four of them had one likeness. Their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel. 17When they went, they went in their four directions. They didn’t turn when they went. 18As for their rims, they were high and dreadful; and the four of them had their rims full of eyes all around.
19When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them. When the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. 20Wherever the spirit was to go, they went. The spirit was to go there. The wheels were lifted up beside them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. 21When those went, these went. When those stood, these stood. When those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up beside them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
22Over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like an awesome crystal to look at, stretched out over their heads above. 23Under the expanse, their wings were straight, one toward the other. Each one had two which covered on this side, and each one had two which covered their bodies on that side. 24When they went, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a noise of tumult like the noise of an army. When they stood, they let down their wings.
25There was a voice above the expanse that was over their heads. When they stood, they let down their wings. 26Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone. On the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man on it above. 27I saw as it were glowing metal, as the appearance of fire within it all around, from the appearance of his waist and upward; and from the appearance of his waist and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. 28As the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the LORD’s glory. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.
Ezekiel 2
1He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” 2The Spirit entered into me when he spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard him who spoke to me.
3He said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day. 4The children are impudent and stiff-hearted. I am sending you to them, and you shall tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’ 5They, whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse—for they are a rebellious house—yet they will know that there has been a prophet among them. 6You, son of man, don’t be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you dwell among scorpions. Don’t be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. 7You shall speak my words to them, whether they will hear or whether they will refuse; for they are most rebellious. 8But you, son of man, hear what I tell you. Don’t be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth, and eat that which I give you.”
9When I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me; and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. 10He spread it before me. It was written within and without; and lamentations, mourning, and woe were written in it.
Ezekiel 3
1He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”
2So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll.
3He said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your belly and your bowels with it.” Then I ate it. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth.
4He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them. 5For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel— 6not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can’t understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you. 7But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they will not listen to me; for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted. 8Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads. 9I have made your forehead as a diamond, harder than flint. Don’t be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”
10Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, receive in your heart and hear with your ears all my words that I speak to you. 11Go to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them, and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse.”
12Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, “Blessed be the LORD’s glory from his place.” 13I heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing. 14So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the LORD’s hand was strong on me. 15Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv who lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.
16At the end of seven days, the LORD’s word came to me, saying, 17“Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me. 18When I tell the wicked, ‘You will surely die;’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity; but I will require his blood at your hand. 19Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn’t turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.”
20“Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he will die. Because you have not given him warning, he will die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered; but I will require his blood at your hand. 21Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he will surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul.”
22The LORD’s hand was there on me; and he said to me, “Arise, go out into the plain, and I will talk with you there.”
23Then I arose, and went out into the plain, and behold, the LORD’s glory stood there, like the glory which I saw by the river Chebar. Then I fell on my face.
24Then the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet. He spoke with me, and said to me, “Go, shut yourself inside your house. 25But you, son of man, behold, they will put ropes on you, and will bind you with them, and you will not go out among them. 26I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be mute and will not be able to correct them, for they are a rebellious house. 27But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.”
Ezekiel 4
1“You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem. 2Lay siege against it, build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it. Also set camps against it and plant battering rams against it all around. 3Take for yourself an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. Then set your face toward it. It will be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
4“Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. According to the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. 5For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6“Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have appointed forty days, each day for a year, to you. 7You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it. 8Behold, I put ropes on you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege.
9“Take for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel. Make bread of it. According to the number of the days that you will lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it. 10Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall eat it. 11You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you shall drink. 12You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.” 13The LORD said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.”
14Then I said, “Ah Lord GOD! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has come into my mouth!”
15Then he said to me, “Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread on it.”
16Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will drink water by measure, and in dismay; 17that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
Ezekiel 5
1“You, son of man, take a sharp sword. You shall take it as a barber’s razor to yourself, and shall cause it to pass over your head and over your beard. Then take balances to weigh and divide the hair. 2A third part you shall burn in the fire in the middle of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled. You shall take a third part, and strike with the sword around it. A third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. 3You shall take a small number of these and bind them in the folds of your robe. 4Of these again you shall take, and cast them into the middle of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From it a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.
5“The Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the middle of the nations, and countries are around her. 6She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.’
7“Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are around you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have followed the ordinances of the nations that are around you; 8therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you; and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. 9I will do in you that which I have not done, and which I will not do anything like it any more, because of all your abominations. 10Therefore the fathers will eat the sons within you, and the sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you; and I will scatter the whole remnant of you to all the winds. 11Therefore as I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you. My eye won’t spare, and I will have no pity. 12A third part of you will die with the pestilence, and they will be consumed with famine within you. A third part will fall by the sword around you. A third part I will scatter to all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them.
13“‘Thus my anger will be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I will be comforted. They will know that I, the LORD, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them.
14“‘Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are around you, in the sight of all that pass by. 15So it will be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes—I, the LORD, have spoken it— 16when I send on them the evil arrows of famine that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you. I will increase the famine on you and will break your staff of bread. 17I will send on you famine and evil animals, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood will pass through you. I will bring the sword on you. I, the LORD, have spoken it.’”
Ezekiel 6
1The LORD’s word came to me, saying, 2“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them, 3and say, ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! The Lord GOD says to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys: “Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places. 4Your altars will become desolate, and your incense altars will be broken. I will cast down your slain men before your idols. 5I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols. I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6In all your dwelling places, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. 7The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.
8“‘“Yet I will leave a remnant, in that you will have some that escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries. 9Those of you that escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken with their lewd heart, which has departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols. Then they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. 10They will know that I am the LORD. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”’
11“The Lord GOD says: ‘Strike with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, “Alas!”, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for they will fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. 12He who is far off will die of the pestilence. He who is near will fall by the sword. He who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus I will accomplish my wrath on them. 13You will know that I am the LORD when their slain men are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every thick oak—the places where they offered pleasant aroma to all their idols. 14I will stretch out my hand on them and make the land desolate and waste, from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”